Uf Is On The Sidelines For Gatorade Deal

December 5, 2000|By Scott Powers of The Sentinel Staff

The University of Florida, where Gatorade was invented, has received $61.5 million in royalties since 1973, including $6.9 million last year. UF officials would not say Monday whether the Pepsi acquisition might bring a windfall to the school.

"It would be inapproriate to speculate as to whether the Pepsi purchase might impact our agreement with Quaker Oats in any way," Winfred M. Phillips, UF vice president for research, said in a prepared statement.

One irony facing UF: The university has a contract granting exclusive soft-drink rights to Coke. That contract normally forbids any Pepsi products from being sold on campus. But John Lester, assistant director of the UF office of public affairs, said Gatorade is specifically exempt from the Coke contract.